Chapter 22: Good Fortune or Disaster
On the way back home, Second Xu carried the firewood with a shoulder pole, while Mr. Xu leisurely carried the basket and the hatchet. However, if someone were to look closely, he would see that Mr. Xu's expression was a bit more nervous than usual.
The hand that was holding the hatchet was clammy with cold sweat too.
The road that hadn't been to long at first seemed to last forever now, at least in Mr. Xu's eyes.
Within his basket, at the very bottom, lay the sandalwood box, some herbs and mushrooms he had gathered hiding it from plain view.
At the moment, Mr. Xu was very afraid that someone would appear and snatch this box of treasure away from him.
Fortunately, they reached home without anything happening.
After Mr. Xu entered the house, instead of carelessly throwing the basket into the yard as he usually did, he carried it all the way into the hall.
Zhou, who had come out of the kitchen prepared to take the basket from Mr. Xu, was taken aback. By the time she recovered from her shock, Mr. Xu had already walked into the main room.
"Dear!" Old Mr. Xu excitedly rushed towards Mrs. Xu, who had just returned to the house not long ago. "Let me show you some good things I've found!"
Then, the old man took the sandalwood box out of the basket and placed it in front of Mrs. Xu.
Mrs. Xu was similarly shocked by the box full of jewelry.
"Whe- Where did you get this?"
"I picked it up in the mountains. Seeing that the brass lock on the outside had become rusty, I thought it must be an old object that had been there for years!" Mr. Xu laughed, "Hehe! Now our family can finally be considered well-off!"
Mrs. Xu did not reply, instead picking up the jewelry in the box and inspecting it all.
After looking at them for a short while, Mrs. Xu threw away the jewelry in her hand, exclaiming, "Dear, we can't keep this!"
"What's wrong?"
"Look at the mark on them!"
"What's wrong with the mark?"
Mr. Xu picked up a hairpin and carefully checked the mark at the tail of the hairpin. After one look, the old man's face immediately turned pale.
"These are stolen objects!"
"Exactly!" Mrs. Xu nodded. "Fortunately, we have read the notice in the county town. Otherwise, a disaster would surely have dawned upon us!"
"Thanks to the ancestors for your blessings!"
Mr. Xu put his hands together before him, also terrified.
Twenty years ago, a big crime occurred here, in Wangjiang County. The gift that the Jiangcheng Prefecture had sent to his majesty for his enthronement had been stolen on the way to its destination, all the officers and soldiers escorting the gift killed.
This had become a big case that spread throughout the empire.
After the new emperor ascended the throne and heard of this news, he dispatched the army to Jiangcheng Prefecture, beheading many people and causing blood to flow into a stream.
All the bandits in the Jiangcheng Prefecture had been wiped out.
However, no clues about the stolen gifts had ever been revealed, at least until now. It was not that the robbers had not been caught, but that the robbers were all remnants of the former dynasty and would rather die than reveal the places where they had hidden the gift.
"Dear, you say, is it possible that all those gifts are hidden in the mountain behind Spirit Water Village? I remember, at that time, there was a crowd of bandits just over the mountain behind our village!"
Mrs. Xu looked at Mr. Xu in astonishment.
Mr. Xu was silent for a while, slowly saying, "Dear, do you think we should report this to the local authority? It is said that the court's reward is still available!"
Mrs. Xu thought for a while before replying, "Go! Today, you and second son encountered it in that area while chopping firewood. Maybe someone else will go to the same place in the future, and if they find something and it results in some events, we will be implicated!"
"Sure. I will head to the county town tomorrow- No, today!"
"Dear… Wait a minute," Mrs. Xu hesitated, "You say, if we go and report it, would the remnants of the former dynasty cause us trouble?"